


Spider She Wrote

by gloss



Category: Murder She Wrote, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Secrets, maine, not at all, not dark!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21945937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloss/pseuds/gloss
Summary: Miles and May visit her old friend Jessica in Cabot Cove.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 135
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Spider She Wrote

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sandyk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/gifts).



> for k. with love and affection and respect ♥

By his third day in Cabot Cove, Miles is 93% sure that Ms. Fletcher knows he's Spider-Man.

Aunt May has sworn up and down, on her husband's grave and also on Miles's copy of _Beloved_ , that she hadn't told her old friend Miles's biggest secret. (It's his only secret, actually, but that just makes it bigger.)

"Don't be ridiculous," May said as they waited at Penn for the train up to Boston and then through to Cabot Cove. "I would never betray your trust like that."

"She's a detective, though," Miles pointed out. 

"She's also an English teacher and writer. Which do you need more help with, hm?"

"Both," he admitted. "Detecting and writing."

She patted his shoulder. "But you're an excellent climber and jumper as well as a talented artist."

He suspected she was placating him, but it didn't matter. Still felt really nice.

They're staying with Ms. Fletcher for the week while his parents' building is bombed for bedbugs. His mom is in the Bronx with her sister while his dad goes down south for "boys' time" with his brothers and cousins. Miles is deeply relieved and overwhelmingly grateful that May came up with this trip idea, thus saving him from six days of fishing and grunting and watching sports until his eyes bleed. His parents love May and, he's sure, 100% buy the _she's my senior-citizen assigned to teach me living history and now we're just really good buddies_ -excuse. It's actually just about the truth, save any mention of spiders.

Together, he and May sold the visit to Maine to his parents as a summer intensive in composition. Miles assumed at the time that this was simply a cover story for Miles and May Hit the North Atlantic for Beachy Fun.

He was wrong. 

Ms. Fletcher sent him a _reading list_ beforehand. He has to use the train ride to finish _O Pioneers_. When they arrive, he learns he has to keep a daily journal in addition to writing short compositions on various topics.

Yesterday it was: "Community Policing and Theories of Justice".

Today's is: "Vigilantes in and out of Costume: Threat, Menace, or Something Else?"

He fully expects that tomorrow's assignment will be "I Am Spider-Man, Okay, Fine, Let's Cut the Crap". This evening, the three of them, along with Ms. Fletcher's friend Seth, investigated a potential murder scene out on Wyeth Point's lighthouse.

"If only someone could get up there to check the lens..." Ms. Fletcher mused. She tugged her crochet shawl more tightly around herself as she gazed up at the dark spire. "I feel sure that the murderer —"

"— if there is one," Seth put in.

"— if there is one, yes, if there is a murderer, I'm nearly certain he hid the bayonet up in the lens-room."

Behind their backs, May gave Miles a Significant Look. He glared back at her; she must have thought he didn't understand, because she mimed a spider-crawling up the water-spout.

"Why doesn't, uh. Someone should just go up there," Miles said, trying to ignore May. In the movies, Spider-Man gets sponsored by Tony Stark, which is incredibly fabulous. In real life, Spider-Man gets harassed by nosy ladies convinced they know what's best.

(They usually do know! He likes them a lot. That is not the point of the comparison he's trying to make here.)

Everyone stared at him when he asked that. 

"What?" He'd missed something, hadn't he? Oh, _God_ , maybe they were all too old to climb that many stairs and he'd just reminded them of their mortality and, like, physical frailty? He really ought to be more careful.

"Structure's been closed for a decade," Seth said. "Big part of the story I told on the way over."

"The stairs were removed at closing," May said.

"But my prime suspect, of course, is a world-class mountaineer and rappelleur," Ms. Fletcher concluded.

"Oh," Miles said to all of them. "Sure, of course. I just meant —" He shrugged, feeling his chest deflate. "Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for," Ms. Fletcher told him and offered him her arm. "Would you be kind enough to escort me over that jetty?"

"Jessica..." Seth said warningly.

"I'll be _fine_ ," she replied, already setting off with Miles in tow.

She mentioned the hidden weapon a few more times as they picked their way across the rocks. Miles already felt pretty horrible about lying to her — she was hosting him at her house and tutoring him out of the goodness of her heart! — and that feeling just soured as they chatted.

When they returned home, he slunk off to bed. He couldn't sleep, of course. It's way too dark up here and quiet. It's not _silent_ , there's tons of insects and animals doing their nature-channel thing, but it's nothing relaxing. No wonder Stephen King books always happen here: the dark, plus the hunger of animals, is perfect for horror.

Also guilt.

Miles gets up and takes out his journal. He writes up an account of their trip to Wyeth Point, concentrating on including the five **W** 's and **H**. He spends a paragraph on _sensual description_ , but only after giggling all over again at the term. Sensual!

When he has finished, he reads some more of the James Baldwin collection and, eventually, falls asleep.

In the morning, he has to be up early because Ms. Fletcher's friend Ethan promised to take Miles out on his lobster boat. Miles had visions of getting into one of those cages that divers use to visit sharks; he _knows_ that's not going to happen, but how cool would it be if it did?

Ethan has left him a note on the dock, apologizing for cancelling, so Miles hoofs it back through bustling downtown Cabot Cove. (That's a joke Seth makes every time they go down Main Street. If Miles spends much more time here, he might very well start saying _ayup_ and looking askance at city folks.)

For breakfast, he buys half a blueberry pie from the lady who runs the gas station and diner. It's not the same as coming clean to Ms. Fletcher, but maybe it will make him feel a little better about lying. Later, if he can figure out how to borrow a bike, he could head down apiece to Wyeth Point and check out the lens.

As he lets himself into Ms. Fletcher's house, he hears her voice join May's. They're laughing about something and sound really happy. Then they go quiet and Miles almost says something as he rounds the corner into the kitchen. 

Ms. Fletcher and May are standing there with their foreheads tipped together, hands on each other's waists. Their quiet, this moment, is their own. It's really pretty, too, giving Miles that ache he gets sometimes when he hears certain songs or thinks about Gwen and Peter B.

He backs away, pie in hand, depending on spider-silence to hide his presence.

He's not the only one with secrets. He needs to remember that.


End file.
